Let’s Talk about Recycling

by slcgreen on July 12, 2018

You may have heard that much is changing in the recycling world these days. For the last couple decades, China has accepted the majority of the world’s recycled materials– whether that’s plastic, paper, cardboard, or metal.

Our recycling programs evolved over that time to encourage more and more recycling of more and more items, with not so much attention focused on “contamination.” Contamination means that there are items in the recycling load that shouldn’t be there (like garbage or leaves or shoes or hoses . . . you get the picture). It can also mean that otherwise recyclable items are dirty and therefore unusable (oily pizza boxes for example).

Meanwhile, our society has continued to progress towards more packaging, more disposables, and more single-use items.

There’s a lot of recycled material being processed every day in Salt Lake City! Help us minimize contamination by only putting accepted items into your blue container.

In Salt Lake City, disruption of our recycling program has so far been minimal.

You may have seen a recent notice on your recycling container advising you of the latest changes:

As we announced in January, please do not put plastic bags, films, or wraps of any kind in the blue container.

Do not enclose recyclables in plastic bags or kitchen bin liners (i.e. do not “bag your recyclables.”) This will prevent your items from being recycled.

No expanded polystyrene (“Styrofoam“)

No shredded paper.

The recycling changes notice that is being placed on Salt Lake City curbside recycling containers this summer. It advises residents to keep plastic bags, plastic film, Styrofoam, and shredded paper out of the blue can.

Eliminating these items from our recycling stream is now required in order to meet stricter standards and to ensure the health of Salt Lake City’s overall recycling program.

Please know that, while we have had to implement these new restrictions, we continue to work very hard with our processors to secure vendors to accept as much other material as possible.

We hope to minimize further changes to Salt Lake City’s recycling program. However, please stay connected with us in case additional modifications of the accepted items list need to be made.

If it’s not on the list, it should not go in the blue container. (“When in doubt, throw it out.”) However, we do encourage you to utilize specialized collection opportunities, like the CHaRMs hosted by the Utah Recycling Alliance or other organizations for hard-to-recycle materials that cannot go in the blue bin.

And that brings us to an important last point.

Recycling is still the cornerstone of a successful waste management program and is essential to a sustainable community. It conserves water, reduces greenhouse gas emissions, and saves raw material among other benefits.

Salt Lake City collects recyclables from an estimated 45,000 residential homes, and 1,100 small businesses and multi-family complexes every day, five days per week. An average of 750 tons of material are recycled each month.

The benefits of recycling clearly outweigh the current challenges we’re facing.

However, recycling has always been the last of the “Three R’s” (Reduce, Reuse, Recycle), but that order has become ever-more important in the wake of the global crisis in recycling markets.

You can also help by exercising your power as a consumer to choose less waste.

This brings us to a fourth “R”– “Refuse.” Refuse single-use items. Shop in bulk, minimize packaging, and use durable, reusable products. Ask your favorite retailers and businesses to carry products with minimal packaging and to consider their own policies around disposables. (Need some personal inspiration? Check out this woman’s story!)

Thank you for helping SLCgreen provide the most efficient and effective recycling program possible for our community.

At this time, Salt Lake City is able to take wax-coated drink cartons, such as the ones orange juice comes in. Please do remove any foil. If you can’t, it should not be put in the recycling container. The plastic screw top is fine. Thanks for the question!

***CORRECTION: Please note that the type of plastic carton known as an “aseptic” carton (and often referred to by their brand name “Tetra Pak”) is not recyclable in Salt Lake City curbside containers. Tetra Paks are a multi-part product that is mostly paperboard but also contains metal and plastic. These are very difficult & expensive to process into separate commodities.***

Thank you so much for this information! I’ve been a little confused about what and what not to put in the recycling bins for a long time, for one because of the recent change about plastic bags. I wasn’t sure if that included a total ban on all bags or just grocery bags because they are lightweight and fly around/get caught in the sorters. Now, I am clear that it is definitely ALL plastic bags. Also, confusion happens when someone reads the acceptable/not acceptable recycling list directly embossed on the recycling can, which is outdated and non-comprehensive. Please communicate as much as you can with the public- the more information is provided from you, the less confusion and more compliance there will be. Thank you again and I hope a solution can be found for accepting even more recyclable materials and keeping it all in-house. I will always do my part to keep it clean, green & follow the 4 R’s

OR, recycle the item in alternate ways. For example, batteries can be recycled at X; textiles including apparel and shoes can be recycled at thrift stores; wine corks can be recycled at Whole Foods, etc.

Please feel free to share our post, but they will need to check their municipality’s recycling guidelines for information that is accurate to where they live. While recycling is a global commodities market, it is also highly local because of the vendors and contracts particular to that location. Thanks for your help!

Great question! When paper is recycled, the fibers become shorter and it becomes a lower-grade paper. Paper is only recyclable so many times (the last stop being paper towels and bathroom tissue). When paper is shredded, it immediately becomes lower-grade, short-fiber paper. Also, in mixed recycling facilities, shredded paper also cannot be captured by the sorting machines. https://earth911.com/work/is-shredded-paper-recyclable/

Hi Christi, this type of meat packaging is usually Styrofoam (Expanded Polystyrene – #6 – which is a type of plastic) and we cannot accept it for recycling any more. It is considered a “hard to recycle” material. Thanks for the question!

I try my best to to recycle everything I can. I know I can recycle paper and aluminum cans, but I’m not sure what else is okay to put in my recycling bin. I appreciate this article telling me to refrain from putting plastic bags and Styrofoam in the recycling bin.

Nice article! I really appreciate the work you do for the environment. Many people don’t know which products are recyclable and which are not. Legos fall in that list – most people don’t know that they are not recyclable and ultimately end up in landfills, adding to the trash which doesn’t decompose for centuries to come. This is why I believe everyone should donate Legos instead. If you give Legos to your local thrift shop they may just dump them, especially if it’s not a sealed boxed set. Give them to Brick Recycler who accepts incomplete and complete Lego sets. They will end up where they should be – in the hands of the children, bringing smiles to their faces. For more information, visit this website: https://www.brickrecycler.com/recycle-anything/

Do please clarify if paperback books in general can be recycled in the blue bins, not just phone books. I try to donate most unwanted books to the local libraries for their sales, but some old trade paperbacks aren’t worth donating. They are piling up and I want to be sure they can be put in the bins. Shirl, for hardcovers, do consider donating them.

I have also been confused about what to put in the blue bin.Thank you for this information and especially for the information about China and our connection to global recycling. I had not idea. I will be super careful of what we put in our bin and spread the word to neighbors and Family.Thank you.

I really like your tip that if you aren’t sure if something should be recycled, then you should throw it out. It makes sense that you wouldn’t want to risk recycling something that can’t be recycled. My wife is very environmentally conscious, so I will be sure to ask my wife if I should recycle something.

I liked how you explained that we should be recycling aerosol cans, plastic containers, magazines, and aluminum cans. My husband and I want to reduce our carbon footprint and improve how we handle our recycling. Thank you for the information about how properly disposing of these items by recycling them will conserve water, reduce greenhouse gases, and save raw materials.